Clinical and demographical profile of inpatient psychiatry referrals in a multispecialty teaching hospital

Background: Research in consultation-liaison psychiatry is important clinically because of high incidence of coexistence of psychiatric and medical disorders in patients attending psychiatry and general healthcare systems. In contrast to west, research about liaison psychiatry in India has been minimal. Thus a study about understanding clinical and sociodemographic profile patterns of inpatient psychiatry referrals was undertaken to enhance our knowledge of this field. Objective: To describe the clinical and socio-demographic profile of inpatient psychiatry referrals in a multispecialty teaching hospital. Materials and methods: The study population comprised all consecutive inpatients who were referred for psychiatric consultation from other departments of a multispecialty teaching hospital over a period of six months. In a semi-structured proforma, socio-demographic profile of patients, referring departments, reason of referral, psychiatric diagnosis, and physical illness diagnosis were recorded and analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 356 patients were referred for psychiatric consultation, 55.9% were males and 44.1% were females. Majority of patients belonged to 20-40 years age group (37.9%). Department of medicine made majority of the psychiatric referrals (50.6%); commonest reason for referral was abnormal behaviour (30.9%), followed by suicidal/self-harm acts (17.9%), and past psychiatric history (10.9%). The most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders were delirium (17.9%), followed by organic psychosis/mood disorder (14.8%), substance related disorder (12.9%), and depression (12.9%). Conclusion: There is an urgent need for raising awareness among all physicians and medical staff regarding early recognition and prompt referral for psychiatric problems. Also further research is warranted, especially longitudinal studies with outcome variables and various clinical processes related to consultation-liaison psychiatry.